After the fall of Romania's communist government, the world’s press got its first look at the horrendous conditions that Romanian orphans had been living in. Lack of basic care and attention left many of the children despondent, uncommunicative and emotionally crippled.

It made no sense. The young widow, a trained teacher in Eastern Europe, had battled for years without employment. Natalka (not her real name) had three children to bring up. A colleague found her a job in a high school where she expected the widow to thrive.

After the execution in 1989 of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu and the corresponding fall of the communist government, the world’s press got its first look at the horrendous conditions that Romanian orphans had been living in. Lack of basic care and attention left many of the children...

On Friday 11th March, a 9.0 earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan and caused a massive tsunami. The devastation that has occurred has caused Japan's Prime Minister to declare this the most severe crisis to hit Japan since World War II.

To mark International Volunteers Day on 4th December, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme announced the winners of the "Online Volunteering Award 2010", honouring the 'outstanding' contributions of volunteers who work entirely over the Internet to contribute to peace and development and...

Heavy monsoon rains at the end of July triggered massive floods that rapidly moved southwards from Pakistan’s northwest, inundating hundreds of villages and claiming more than sixteen hundred lives. More than 14 million people have been affected, with countless others missing, whilst agriculture...

The images shocked us all. Romania’s orphans lay in their beds, staring unblinkingly through their cot bars at cameras: victims of physical and sexual abuse, their behaviour controlled by drugs. Some were lying in their own excrement. Some were tied to their beds. All had lived a sub-human...

“We knew the rebels’ message was serious: If your teacher comes to school, tell him to bring a saucepan and the students to bring corn flour.” As a former child soldier told us this story, we listened, bewildered. Why was that message ‘serious’. What did the saucepan and corn flour mean?